Pion interferometry with pion-source-medium interactions

Abstract

An extended pion source, which can be temporarily created by a high energy nuclear collision, will also absorb and distort the outgoing pions. We discuss how this effect alters the interferometric pattern of the two-pion momentum correlation function. In particular, we show that the two-pion correlation function decreases rapidly when the opening angle between the pions increases. The opening-angle dependence should serve as a new means of obtaining information about the pion source in the analysis of experimental data.